Tag: Angels and Demons

The Sentinel (1977)

Posted on by fenrisfil

Tonight I’m reviewing Michael Winner’s 1977 supernatural horror “The Sentinel” from Universal. The movie stars Cristina Raines as model “Alison Parker”. Support comes from a vast array of movie stars from the past, present and future (For 1977) including Ava Gardner, John Carradine, Christopher Walken and Jeff Goldblum. Richard C. Kratina provides cinematography and Gil Mellé, the music. The movie is based on the novel of the same name by Jeffrey Konvitz. Winner and Konvits adapted the screenplay between them.

Alison Parker is a fashion model with a history of suicide attempts. These date back to an incident where she walked in on her father during an orgie. After moving into an apartment block in Brooklyn she begins to experience strange physical problems. These include fainting spells, insomnia and hearing things. She begins to become agitated by her bizarre neighbours, only to be told that the only other resident there is an elderly reclusive priest. Meanwhile, Alison’s lawyer boyfriend Michael (Chris Sarandon) is being investigated by cops Gatz (Eli Walloch) and Rizzo (Christopher Walken) over the suspicious death of his wife. Alison and Michael attempt to unravel the mystery involving the apartment and the mysterious priest. Ultimately a dark secret will be revealed.

I Am The Way Into The City Of Woe

This is very much a 70’s horror. Edgier and less subtle than the 60’s with more than a little weirdness. It has a pace that starts off slow but builds up more momentum as it goes and then throws everything but the kitchen sink at you for the climax. The movie knows how to unsettle the viewer while keeping them glued to the screen. Michael Winner obviously knows what he is doing, but a lot of this is fairly normal stuff for the era and demonstrates why 70’s horror was so effective. With the Christian/Dante themes I can’t help but compare this to the disappointing “The First Omen” film I reviewed earlier in the month. This demonstrates exactly the kinds of things that film lacked. Specifically, the edginess and the commitment to a religious view point (And associated fears).

That said, this movie clearly takes a lot of influence from Rosemary’s Baby. The way the other “Residence” of her apartment block approach her in a friendly and yet creepy manner and how ultimately they have evil intentions towards her. That is straight out of Polanski’s playbook. Between that and the influences of the various demon/devil related movies of the 1970’s this movie doesn’t feel especially unique or original. But it’s not cliched. Compared to many of the modern takes on this sub-genre, it actually feels relatively fresh. The story itself is straight forward and relies on a slow reveal of information to drag it out. Most of the events in the film don’t really matter that much and several plot threads seem to disappear into the ether.

Abandon All Hope, You Who Enter

Among the many peripheral characters are Christopher Walken and Jeff Goldblum. Both have very small roles, which is a shame but it’s early in their careers. Goldblum plays a director and Walken plays a cop. Of the two Walken comes closest to having some relevancy to the plot, but both threads drop away before the final act. Effectively the police are just there to imply that Alison’s boyfriend Michael may be a murderer. They drift out of the woodwork for the second act and vanish again by the third. Goldblum’s role has even less impact as it’s tied to Alison’s day job as a model, something that barely factors into the story.

The strength of this movie is entirely in the events that happen in the apartment block itself. The introduction to the neighbours, the revelation that they may not be real and the parade of weirdness in the fact act. These elements are what makes this film interesting. It’s not enough to raise it up to a true classic, but it is memorable and unsettling. The pacing is good, but the plot could have been structured better so that all the threads felt worthwhile. This is a solid 6/10. Recommended, but don’t expect to be blown away,

Rating: 6 out of 10.

Gabriel (2007)

Posted on by fenrisfil

Tonight’s movie is another low budget Australian film, but this time from 2007. This is directed by Shane Abbess and I’ve seen his movies before so know exactly what to expect. A good idea, good world building, but not much else. For the record “Infini” is probably his best work, but it’s only average. Why do I keep watching his films you may ask? Well, I do really appreciate someone coming up with good ideas, even if they tend to fail in the execution (and let’s be honest, a good part of that is done to budget limitations). I can’t help but feel Abbess is going to pull something great out one day and I want to see it when he does. Anyway, this is a movie about Angels fighting Demons in purgatory and stars Andy Whitfield (a.k.a. Spartacus from the TV series) in the title role.

October Review Challenge – Day 17

Our film begins with a brief explanation of the world in which it is set. This is purgatory, a giant city that is inhabited by the souls of those deemed not evil enough for hell or righteous enough for heaven. Here the inhabitants remain until they earn the chance to move up or down. Unlike on Earth though the forces of good and evil take a direct approach to their recruitment. Seven Angels and seven Fallen Angels fight for control of the city and to lead it’s inhabitants one way or the other. It seems these entities join the fight one at a time and apparently not synchronised. Basically this is WCW War Games but with Angels and Demons. Just like War Games, it seems the “heels” enter first so always get the numerical advantage with the final “face” being the hero that has to clean house.

Gabriel is that hero and our story follows him. The demons (Well fallen angels, but I’m just going to call them demons) have the upper hand and all the Angels have gone into hiding and are generally washed up and run down. Gabriel sets out to find them so that together they can restore the balance, not an easy task as most of them have given up. The strongest previous Angel, Michael has gone completely missing, presumed killed by Samuel, the head Demon. Getting this group together those seems to be exactly what Samuel wants as only when they use their powers can the demons sense where they are and move in for the kill.

City of Angels, City of Devils.

This is a movie with some good ideas and a mind towards style, but a lot of it doesn’t work. The Angels fight using guns, which is a little goofy and seems entirely a style choice. The purgatory city is interesting but the humans don’t have a whole lot of an involvement in the plot, so it’s basically Team X Vs Team Y in a setting that is basically “Dark City” and trying to do it with a bit of Matrix flair. This is definitely a movie that wants to be in the 90’s. I can respect that though, 90’s gothic was cool.

The acting here is not great, with the exception of Andy Whitfield who largely has to hold the film up by himself. Andy made a name for himself after this in the TV series Spartacus but sadly his life and career was cut short by cancer so we’ll never know how far his career could have gone. The rest of the cast is filled with various “Home and Away” Alumni that weren’t quite able to break Hollywood. This lot have varying degrees of talent but some of them, especially most of the villains were just awful.

Lacking Soul.

While the concepts and world building is pretty reasonable, the actual plot and the characters leave a lot to be desired. There really isn’t much to the story and the characters don’t really get to show their depth. All the Angels aside from Gabriel are worn down and depressed, while all the demons are basically psychopaths other than their leader. Gabriel himself despite having a good actor, is not exactly complex. The only character with complexity is “Sammael” (played just about passably by Dwaine Stevenson) but his complexity is built into the fact he is part of a painfully obvious twist.

The plot itself is really an exercise in time wasting. We all know Gabriel will end up fighting Sammael, but first he must get his team together and act that turns out completely pointless because in the end he has to kill all the villains himself anyway. It is a plot that probably would be fine stretched out in a TV series or compacted down in a shorter movie, but this was the wrong length for that plot. The music and the effects meanwhile both scream “low budget”, but are actually both okay. None of it took me out of the moment and for a $200k (Australian dollars) movie from the late 2000’s it’s not bad really.

Conclusion

After my Halloween Ends review I actually don’t mind watching a regular old bad movie. At least the people behind this had their own ideas and had them stand on their own feet. Admittedly they then fell over a little drunk, but I still respect the intention. The world building here is actually pretty good and the basic concept is one I approve of. It’s only really the execution that lets it down. I’m going to be generous and give it a 4.5/10 for the concept (goofy as it is), setting and a few nice visuals. Like all of Shane Abbess’ movies it’s painfully close to good, but not quite there.

Rating: 4.5 out of 10.